Lyrics

By Peter Cooper (Well Known Music, SESAC, admin. by Bug Music)

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” That’s what Martin Luther King, Jr. said. “The meantime is a mean time.” That’s what John Gorka said. And so frustration can set in. Peter found a new chord (new to him, anyway) in the Den Haag backyard of Joanna Serraris, and he wrote this entire song using that chord in conjunction with a few others, some observation, some confrontation, a revelation and the production wizardry of Jen Gunderman. It was Jen who suggested bringing in the flugelhorn. We thought she was just unnaturally obsessed with Chuck Mangione records, but it turned out she knew exactly what she was doing. Flugelhorn… who knew?

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You can see him at the ballgame
Raining curses on the kicker
See him driving through your neighborhood
You can read his bumper sticker
He’s holding fast to what he loves
And he will not vacillate
Sometimes it gets hard to love the man who loves to hate
It all just goes to show you
That he knew it all along
Tell him what you like
Don’t try to tell him nothing’s wrong
He’s never met a moment’s peace
That he could not complicate
Sometimes it gets hard to love the man who loves to hate
(bridge)
Don’t pull no punches
Call a spade a spade
He’s got a steel trap mind
And a mouth like a live grenade

It’s the weather here, it’s the government
It’s the song you always hum
The one that proved we’re all so dumb
When it went platinum
But the smiles are getting tighter
And the scars accumulate
On the hearts of the ones who try to love
The man who loves to hate
He was standing up on principle
And he would not be outdone
Spouting his opinions
Out of sport and spite and fun
And she said “How do you know?”
And her words just laid me flat
A man who loves to hate just hates
To hear a thing like that